


Stay The Night

by Mandergee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Mention of sex, One-Shot, slight act of it but nothing majorly descriptive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:07:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1956177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mandergee/pseuds/Mandergee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate scenario in which May was present briefly on the helicarrier prior to the events that led to Coulson's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay The Night

**Author's Note:**

> I've been listening to "Daylight" by Maroon 5 pretty much nonstop, because the lyrics just grab me as very Philinda. If they were to embark on any sort of relationship, I keep thinking they'd take advantage of the times they could just be themselves, because during the day they'd have to leave that aspect of themselves behind in order to do their jobs.

"Do you ever rethink your decision?" They lay in the relative quiet of Coulson's cabin, the faint sound of humming engines barely detectable through the thick walls. May wondered if he found it soothing, the mechanical sounds replacing the sound of the traffic she'd become so familiar with outside the walls of his tiny D.C. apartment. Beneath the blankets his hand traced slow, lazy patterns on the bare skin of her thigh, and she tried to imagine what he was he was writing with the invisible ink of his DNA. Maybe, she thought, one day she'd actually ask him. “You don't miss field work, do you?”

"No." Her voice sounded husky, and she felt his fingers tense, his body shifting closer. She knew her presence aboard the carrier had come as a surprise to him, and while she'd never intended to accept the assignment, Administration had requested an agent with relative field experience to deliver documents to Director Fury...and she'd fit the bill. Although assurances had been made that she would see no combat, May had set foot on the deck with the familiar feeling of dread welling up in her chest, and as her eyes had fallen on Coulson's face she'd relaxed. But the kernel of pain remained, lodged somewhere in the depths, and she couldn't bring herself to face it. "I can't see combat anymore.”

"I know." His smile was sad for a moment, and she reached up to let her own fingers drift, delicately, down the curve of his jaw. She hadn't seen him in three months, his own fieldwork requiring little time at HQ, and she'd been happy to discover how much she'd missed him. “You're going back.”

He turned his head to press a kiss to her palm, and leaned in to bury his face in the hollow of her throat. She moaned, arching her back as his teeth nipped gently at her skin, and her fingers curled over his shoulders, leaving faint red scratches that were angry against his pale skin. _He's seen worse,_ she thought. _We all have_.

"I have to.”

She thought of Audrey, inexplicably, and wondered if somewhere inside he still loved her. If he still thought about her. If he'd go to see her, repair the relationship she suspected had broken, when the world was safe again.

"Stay with me."

"I have to leave." She'd flown herself, pilots license being yet another reason S.H.I.E.L.D had deemed her the best candidate for the mission, and she hadn't anticipated a delay in her return. Her hands pushed against him now, the desperation mounting even as her heart ached with wanting to stay. "They're expecting me back."

"Just for the night." His lips trailed down, pressed wet kisses against her flat stomach. "You can get out in the morning- I'll clear your departure with Hill.”

"Phil..." As he moved up to kiss her again she allowed him to pull her close, his body warm against hers. She remembered thinking she loved him, once, and his relationship with Audrey had forced those feelings back into the recesses of her mind. After Bahrain it had been hard for her love anything, let alone herself, but his constant presence had given her cause to reassess what she thought about him, and as she felt him slip gently inside of her she knew that those feelings had come back with a vengeance.

_I love you_ . But she didn't say it. She wouldn't say it, not when there was so much at stake, the world cowering with the possibility of an impending alien attack. If she said it now, she thought, it wasn't going to be right.

As she sat at her desk a day later with the scent of his cologne still clinging to her hair, she wished that she'd changed her mind. If she'd stayed, then the report in front of her naming the agent who had died in the field...

…...wouldn't have named him.


End file.
